Technologies that may be used in wireless communications may include, among others, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n, also known as wireless local area network or WLAN, metropolitan area communication systems, and short-range communication systems. Each such technology may operate in a specified frequency range. In addition, devices that use such technologies may also be equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) that also uses a specified frequency band. More specifically, GSM uses frequencies of approximately 850, 1800, and 1900 megahertz (MHz), which will be referred to herein as the GSM 850, GSM 1800, and GSM 1900 bands, respectively. The GSM 1800 and GSM 1900 bands may be referred to collectively as the GSM 1800/1900 band. WLAN uses the frequency ranges 2400-2500 MHz and 5160-5825 MHz, which will be referred to herein as the WLAN 2.4 and WLAN 5 bands, respectively. GPS uses a frequency of 1575 MHz, which will be referred to herein as the GPS band.
Metropolitan area communication systems typically have a coverage radius of approximately 30 miles. An example of a metropolitan area communication system is WiMax band 3A, which uses a frequency range of 2496-2690 MHz. The term “WiMax” may be used generically hereinafter to refer to any metropolitan area communication system with such a coverage radius and such a frequency range, but it should be understood that such a system is not necessarily a WiMax system. Such a frequency range may be referred to hereinafter as the WiMax band.
Short-range communication systems may have a coverage radius of less than 100 meters. An example of a short-range communication system is Bluetooth, which uses a frequency range of 2400-2484 MHz. The term “Bluetooth” may be used generically hereinafter to refer to any short-range communication system with such a coverage radius and such a frequency range, but it should be understood that such a system is not necessarily a Bluetooth system. Such a frequency range may be referred to herein as the Bluetooth band.
An antenna designed to transmit or receive on one of the bands mentioned above may be referred to by the respective band name. For example, an antenna designed to receive GPS signals may be referred to as a GPS antenna.
Antennas such as those described above may be used in numerous different types of devices, such as mobile telephones, personal digital assistants, handheld computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, or similar devices. As used herein, terms such as “mobile handset”, “wireless device”, and the like may be used to refer to such devices, but it should be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein may be applicable to any type of device that may be equipped with any of these types of antennas, even if the device is not transportable.